Election 2022: Aussie Robson Djokovic at centre of Sogavare’s pro-Beijing circle

Australian citizen Robson Djokovic remains at the centre of Sogavare’s inner circle as he plays off Canberra against Beijing.

Robson Djokovic.

On October 10, 2006, a clandestine Papua New Guinea ­Defence Force flight landed at a remote airfield in Solomon ­Islands’ Western Province.

On board was the fugitive lawyer and accused child sex offender Julian Moti, who was fleeing an Australian arrest warrant and had been named by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare as his nominated attorney-general.

Moti died in his native Fiji two years ago. But another man who was on the plane that day, Robson Djokovic, remains at the centre of Sogavare’s inner circle as he plays off Canberra against Beijing.

Djokovic, who holds Australian citizenship, is Sogavare’s nephew, chief-of-staff and closest confidant.

As the son of Sogavare’s sister, he enjoys the Prime Minister’s implicit trust, and his dealings with political, foreign and business ­figures carry his uncle’s authority.

Djokovic is also a nightclub owner and former official with the Solomon Forestry Association, which represents the country’s ­notorious Chinese-Malaysian ­logging companies.

Solomon Islands business records show Djokovic and two other Sogavare confidants, Attorney-General John Muria Jr and lawyer Wilson Rano, are directors of Clandestine Entertainment Limited. The company – named perhaps after the 2006 Moti flight – is the registered owner of Honiara’s Wild West-themed nightclub, Cowboys, which was previously owned by pro-Beijing logger ­Johnny Sy. The bar, known for its short-skirted Filipino waitresses and late-night carousing, is where ­government officials and business figures get together over buckets of the local beer, SolBrew.

Prominent Solomon Islands opposition MP Peter Kenilorea Jr said the trio’s ownership of the bar was curious, “and the link to logging interests, to that premises, is definitely off-putting”.

Kenilorea said Djokovic had “the gift of the gab” and was both “colourful” and influential.

“He is there for a purpose. He has that family connection,” he told The Australian.

Djokovic was last year forced to resign as president of Sogavare’s political party after this newspaper revealed he was an Australian ­citizen. He is currently facing ­allegations of electoral fraud for voting in the 2019 Solomon Islands election as a non-citizen.

Djokovic is appealing a Solomons High Court ruling that he is not a citizen of the country, which only recently allowed its people to be dual nationals. A statement from Sogavare’s communications unit said the court’s ruling “in no way impacts on his appointment as the chief-of-staff”.

Rano, who is also the secretary of the Prime Minister’s OUR Party, said in the statement: “It has always been our position from the beginning that Mr Djokovic is an indigenous Solomon Islander and therefore a citizen. For this reason an appeal to the Court of Appeal is necessary to settle this difference of opinion.”

Peter Shanel Agovaka, centre, and Anthony Veke, second from right, meet China Sam Group executives in Beijing.

In addition to his roles as first law officer and nightclub owner, Muria Jr is also a director of the Solomon Islands Cable Company – the state-owned enterprise that sells access to the Australian taxpayer-funded Coral Sea Cable.

Lawyer Chris Hapa, a former Moti protege who was also on the 2006 PNGDF flight, is another of the cable company’s registered ­directors.

Prior to the September 2019 switch in diplomatic relations from Taiwan, key members of ­Sogavare’s inner circle travelled to China for meetings with business and political figures.

They included Djokovic and the country’s Mining Minister, Bradley Tovosia, who were photographed at PNG’s Jacksons Airport in late January 2019 before boarding a flight to Beijing.

After their return, the Solomon Islands handed nickel prospecting licences to Chinese firm Bintan that local landowners had agreed in writing would go to Australian firm Axiom Mining.

In a December 2019 company statement, Axiom chief executive Ryan Mount said Djokovic, Rano and a “Fijian lawyer” known to be Moti, had sought “millions of ­dollars be paid to a company ­jointly controlled by Mr Rano and Mr Djokovic”. Mount said in the statement he refused to engage further with the trio.

Police and National Security Minister Anthony Veke and ­Communications and Aviation Minister Peter Shanel Agovaka visited China in August of 2019. Veke was the minister ­responsible for signing the controversial Solomon Islands-China ­security pact.

He said the agreement “simply shows to the global community that we are here building meaningful co-operation, one that is based on teamwork and seriousness to develop Solomon Islands”.

During their trip to China, Veke and Agovaka visited the offices of the China Sam Group. The company later said on its website the ministers “hoped to carry out comprehensive co-operation in energy, chemical industry, investment, trade and other fields in addition to existing co-operation”.

The China Sam Group shot to global prominence just weeks after the diplomatic switch, when it emerged it had signed a deal to lease an entire island, with a ­strategic deepwater port, north of Guadalcanal. The provincial ­government later backtracked on the deal.

Months later, Agovaka signed an aviation deal at Yanliang, in central China, agreeing to purchase six Chinese-made commercial aircraft in return for promised upgrades to nearly three dozen Solomon Islands airstrips.

The fallout from the 2006 Moti flight, which occurred during the Australian-led RAMSI peacekeeping mission to the country, soured Australia’s already strained relationship with Sogavare, whose prime ministerial office was raided in search of evidence regarding the illicit flight.

Moti, who was wanted over ­alleged child sex offences in Vanuatu, was extradited to Australia in late 2008 after Sogavare was toppled in a vote of no confidence.

He later won a stay of charges in Australia’s High Court, which found Australian officials’ participation in Moti’s extradition from the Solomons had been unlawful under that country’s law. He died of a heart attack in Fiji in 2020.

According to the Solomon Star, he and Sogavare “kept a close professional relationship until the lawyer’s death”.